,    :«£-'  •;•    •.••«•••• 


THE  INDIANS 


OF 


SOUTH  CAROLINA 


BY 
EDWIN  L.  GREEN 

University  of  South  Carolina 


Columbia,  S.  C. 

THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

Printers 

THE  TRADE  BINDERY 

Binders 

1920 


COPYRIGHT  1904 

BY 
EDWIN  L.  GREEN 


TO 
THE  BOYS 

OF 

SOUTH  CAROLINA 


PREFACE 

Although  not  a  few  books  have  been 
written  in  recent  years  upon  South  Carolina 
and  her  history,  there  is  very  little  that  can 
be  used  in  the  schools.  And  so  it  is  hoped 
that  there  is  a  place  for  a  little  book — the 
first  of  a  number — which  tells  for  the  boys 
many  things  they  would  like  to  know  about 
the  Indians  of  their  own  State. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I. 

Indian  Tribes  in  South  Carolina— General 
Characteristics 9 

CHAPTER  II. 

Boyhood  —  Names  —  Sports  —  Initiation- 
Marriage— Women— Slaves  14 

CHAPTER  III. 

Indian  Town— Houses— Furniture 20 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Dress  of  the  Men — of  the  Women 23 

CHAPTER  V. 
Agriculture— Hunting— Fishing —  Cooking  26 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Trade— Money— Mr.   Galphin  and  the  In 
dian  Chief 35 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Music— Dancing— Games— Writing— Reck 
oning  of  Time— Canoes— Pipes  _.  _  40 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Weapons—  War  Titles  —  War  —  Women  - 
Torture  of  Prisoners—  Peace  _.  _  47 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  King- Great  War  Chief— Beloved  Men 
— Punishment  for  Crime _  55 

CHAPTER  X 

Medicine  Man — Medicine— Tooth    Pulling  59 
CHAPTER  XL 

Burial  Ceremonies— Good  and  Evil  Spirits 
— Heaven — Idols — Charms — Busk 62 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Relations  with  the  White  Men—  Indian 
Wars_.  _  68 


The  Indians  of  South  Carolina 


CHAPTER  I. 

Indian  Tribes  in  South  Carolina — General 
Characteristics. 

When  the  English  settlers  first  came  to 
South  Carolina,  the  country  was  in  the  pos 
session  of  the  Indians,  of  whom  there  were 
twenty-eight  tribes.  The  most  powerful 
tribes  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  first  set 
tlements  were  the  Savannahs  and  the  Wes- 
toes.  On  the  lower  Savannah  River  lived 
the  Yemassees.  The  whole  of  upper  South 
Carolina  was  occupied  by  the  Cherokees, 
east  of  whom,  on  the  North  Carolina  line, 
were  the  Catawbas.  The  Creeks  were  neigh 
bors  to  the  Cherokees  on  the  west,  in  the 
present  States  of  Georgia  and  Alabama, 
and  still  farther  west  dwelled  the  war-like 
Chickesaws.  Both  of  these  nations  were 
closely  connected  by  trade  with  South  Caro 
lina.  Among  the  less  important  tribes  were 
the  Congarees,  Santees,  Stonos,  Waterees, 


10         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

Waxhaws,  Edistos,  Pedees,  Saraws  (Che- 
raws),  Seewees,  Wandos,  Wjinyaws  and 
Saludas. 

The  Indians  of  South  Carolina  were  of 
a  reddish  brown  or  copper  color.  The  men 
were  tall  and  straight,  with  well  shaped 
limbs  and  an  almost  perfect  figure :  the 
Cherokees  were  the  tallest  of  all.  They 
were  never  deformed  or  humpbacked,  and 
were  very  dexterous  in  the  use  of  their 
limbs.  An  old  traveler,  who  has  left  us 
the  story  of  his  journey  through  South  Car 
olina  not  many  years  after  it  was  first  set 
tled,  says  that  he  never  saw  a  left-handed 
Indian.  They  were  hardy  and  possessed 
wonderful  powers  of  endurance,  but  they 
could  not  perform  the  labor  of  the  white 
man.  The  features,  of  the  Cherokees  are 
described  as  regular:  the  cheekbone  was 
high ;  the  nose  was  inclined  to  be  aquiline 
or  hooked;  the  eyes  were  small,  black  and 
full  of  fire.  No  hair  grew  upon  the  face ; 
if  any  did  appear  it  was  plucked  out  by 
the  roots.  The  head,  which  was  covered 
with  long,  coarse  hair,  black  as  a  raven, 
never  became  bald. 

The    women    were    tall,     slender    and 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         11 

straight,  but  smaller  than  the  men.  They 
were  comely,  and  some  of  the  young  wo 
men  of  the  Cherokees  were  almost  as  fair 
and  blooming  as  the  young  women  of  Eu 
rope  ;  but  any  beauty  they  may  have  pos 
sessed  in  youth  was  lost  as  they  grew  old. 
They  were  of  cheerful  and  kindly  natures. 
Many  of  them  became  wives  of  white  men 
who  had  gone  among  the  Indians  to  trade, 
and  finding  the  women  so  pleasing  had 
married,  preferring  to  dwell  in  the  Indian 
country  to  going  back  to  the  settlements. 
So  much  fascination  was  there  in  the  life 
of  the  woods  that  a  story  arose  that  there 
was  a  certain  spring  in  the  Indian  country 
known  as  Herbert's  Spring,  from  which  if 
any  man  should  drink  he  could  not  pos 
sibly  quit  the  nation,  as  the  Indian  country 
was  called,  for  the  space  of  seven  years. 

It  is  said  of  the  natives  that  they  were 
grave  and  slow  in  conversation,  shrewd  in  a 
bargain  and  tenacious  of  what  they  con- 
considered  their  rights.  Their  curiosity  was 
great.  When  Dr.  Henry  Woodward  came 
to  the  town  of  the  Westoes,  the  house  of  the 
chief,  he  says,  into  which  he  was  conducted, 
was  too  small  to  hold  the  crowd  that  came 


1J         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

to  see  him,  so  that  "ye  smaller  fry  got  up 
and  uncovered  the  top  of  ye  house  to  satisfy 
their  curiosity."  At  Port  Royal  the  Indians 
cried  "Bony  Conraro  Angles,"  when  the 
English  came  to  land  and  stroked  them 
upon  the  shoulders  with  the  palms  of  their 
hands,  at  the  same  time  sucking  in  their 
breath.  The  kindness  of  the  natives  to  the 
newly  arrived  settlers  often  prevented  suf 
fering.  When  a  native  was  in  want  of  food 
he  went  to  the  door  of  the  first  house  he 
came  to  in  the  Indian  village,  saying,  "I 
am  come."  The  owner  replied,  "You  are ; 
it  is  well."  At  once  the  hungry  man  was 
supplied  with  food  and  drink.  After  he 
had  satisfied  his  hunger  and  had  smoked 
and  talked  with  his  host,  he  rose  and  de 
parted  with  the  words,  "I  go,"  to  which  the 
other  answered,  "You  do." 

When  an  Indian  lost  his  house  by  fire, 
he  made  a  feast  for  the  men  of  his  tribe, 
to  which  the  invited  guests  brought  pres 
ents,  so  that  it  was  no  uncommon  thing  for 
him  to  receive  three  times  as  much  as  he 
had  lost.  The  men  likewise  came  to  the 
assistance  of  any  one  who  wished  to  build 
a  cabin  or  make  a  canoe. 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         18 

Old  age  was  held  in  the  greatest  rever 
ence.  Sometimes  old  people  who  had  be 
come  helpless  and  decrepit  through  age 
were  put  to  death,  but  only  at  their  earn 
est  entreaty.  Indians  frequently  lived  more 
than  a  hundred  years. 

The  early  settlers  often  complained  that 
the  Indians  killed  and  stole  their  hogs,  cat 
tle  and  horses.  They  considered  it  no  crime 
to  steal  from  the  English,  although  they 
rarely  stole  from  one  another. 

The  Cherokees  were  said  to  have  had 
loud  voices,  "somewhat  rough  and  very 
sonorous."  When  an  Indian  orator  made 
a  speech,  he  used  his  hands,  his  head,  in 
fact,  every  member  of  his  body,  to  aid  his 
words.  The  young  men  did  not  always- 
understand  what  the  old  men  said,  because 
in  debate  they  spoke  with  the  fewest  words 
possible. 


14         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Babyhood —  Name —  Sports  —  Initiation — 
Marriage — Women — Slaves. 

When  a  child  was  born,  the  Cherokee 
Indian  who  wished  to  know  whether  the 
baby  was  a  boy  or  a  girl  asked,  "Is  it  a 
bow,  or  a  sifter  "  or  perhaps,  "Is  it  ball 
sticks  (referring  to  the  sticks  used  in  a 
favorite  game  of  ball)  or  bread?"  The 
little  Indian  had  a  cradle  made  for  it  by 
its  father,  a  piece  of  flat  board  about  two 
feet  long  and  one  foot  broad,  to  which  it 
was  closely  strapped.  The  strap  around 
its  forehead  caused  the  head  to  be  flattened 
and  the  eyes  to  be  a  great  distance  apart, 
which  was  thought  to  be  an  advantage  to 
the  hunter  in  sighting  game.  A  string  ran 
from  one  corner  of  the  board  to  the  other, 
so  that  the  mother  could  sling  the  child  on 
her  back.  When  it  rained  she  threw  her 
cloak  over  her  head,  protecting  both  her 
self  and  the  baby. 

The  following  is  a  song  that  was  sung 
to  a  Cherokee  baby: 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         It 

"Ha  wiye-hyewe,  Ha  wiye-hyewe, 

Yu  we-yuwehe,  Hi  wiyehyu-uwe — 

The  bear  is  very  bad,  so  they  say; 

Long  time  ago  he  was  very  bad,  so  they  say ; 

The  bear  did  so  and  so,  they  say/' 

The  name  give'n  a  child  by  its  parents 
remained  his  name  only  till  he  had  arrived 
at  about  the  age  of  sixteen,  when  he  took 
a  name  for  himself.  This  name  was  often 
that  of  some  animal,  as  Eagle,  Hawk,  Pan 
ther,  Alligator.  A  famous  chief  of  the 
Cherokees  was  Oconostota,  or  "Groundhog 
Sausage,"  commonly  called  "Old  Hop;" 
another  was  Charity  Hayge,  "The  Great 
Conjuror  of  Tugaloo;"  a  third  was  Atta- 
kulla-kulla,  or  "Leaning  Wood,"  known  to 
the  whites  as  "Little  Carpenter."  Haeg- 
ler  was  king  of  the  Catawbas.  There  were 
Indians  called  by  the  English,  "All  Bones," 
"Long  Hair,"  "Corn  Tassel,"  "Acorn  Whis 
tler,"  "Shoe-boots."  A  young  man  could 
win  a  war  title  by  taking  a  certain  number 
of  scalps  from  the  enemy. 

Before  a  boy  was  taught  how  to  walk  he 
learned  how  to  swim.  Winter  and  summer 
his  mother  took  him  to  the  river  early  every 


16         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

morning.  His  chief  sports  were  swimming, 
playing  ball  like  the  "grown  up"  Indians, 
and  hunting  with  his  little  bow  and  arrows, 
or  with  a  cane  reed  several  feet  long  from 
which  the  joints  had  been  carefully  cleared, 
so  that  he  could  use  it  as  a  blow-gun  to  kill 
birds  and  squirrels.  When  an  Indian  boy 
was  born,  the  birds,  it  was  believed,  sang 
in  mournful  chorus :  "Alas !  the  whistle  of 
the  arrow!  My  shins  will  burn!  The 
birds  knew  that  the  boy  would  shoot  them 
with  his  arrows  and  roast  them  on  a  stick. 
One  duty  of  the  boys  was  to  keep  off  crows 
and  other  mischievous  birds  from  corn 
fields.  For  punishment  boys  were  "dry 
scratched, "  that  is,  scratched  with  a  comb 
made  of  a  reed  to  which  had  been  fas 
tened  teeth  of  gar-fish,  or  bits  of  glass, 
without  being  allowed  to  wash  the  wounds. 

When  the  young  Indian  had  reached  the 
age  of  manhood,  about  sixteen,  he  was  com 
pelled  to  undergo  a  severe  initiation,  in 
order  to  harden  him  against  the  fatigues  of 
every  hardship  of  hunting  or  war.  The 
young  man  was  shut  up  with  others  in  a 
strong  cabin  and  given  medicine,  which 
made  them  all  howl  and  cry  in  a  most  dis- 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         17 

mal  manner.  This  lasted  five  or  six  weeks, 
when  the  half-starved  wretches  were 
brought  out,  at  least  those  who  were  alive, 
for  some  of  the  youths  died,  being  fed  on 
very  little  meat  and  that  the  most  loath 
some.  Girls  were  treated  in  a  similar  man 
ner.  Sometimes  a  boy  would  run  away 
to  avoid  this  experience. 

When  a  young  man  was  ready  to  marry, 
he  chose  a  young  woman  who  was  not  so 
closely  related  to  him  as  first  cousin,  and 
if  she  agreed  and  her  relatives  consented, 
he  paid  for  her  a  sum  which  varied  accord 
ing  to  the  beauty  of  the  lady.  If  he  could 
not  pay  all  down  at  once,  but  was  a  good 
hunter,  he  was  allowed  to  pay  part  down 
and  the  balance  during  the  following  hunt 
ing  season.  The  marriage  was  to  last  as 
long  as  the  man  and  woman  agreed.  Among 
some  tribes  there  was  a  simple  marriage 
ceremony :  the  young  man  went  to  the  home 
of  his  beloved  and  in  the  presence  of  the 
wedding  guests  stuck  a  reed  of  cane  in  the 
ground.  Soon  the  bride  came  out  and  set 
up  another  reed  beside  his,  after  which  the 
reeds  were  exchanged  as  certificates  of 
marriage.  Then  followed  feasting  and 


18         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

dancing,  and  the  relatives  of  the  bride  and 
groom  made  presents,  while  the  men  of 
the  town  came  together  and  built  a  new 
home  for  the  young  people. 

The  young  girls  were  very  bashful,  so 
that  when  they  came  into  a  strange  cabin 
where  they  were  not  acquainted  they  never 
asked  for  anything,  however  hungry  they 
might  be ;  but  they  sat  quiet,  saying  nothing 
until  some  one  asked  a  question.  An  In 
dian  mother  was  usually  tender  and  kind  to 
her  children.  A  traveler  who  went  through 
South  Carolina  at  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century  and  knew  the  Indians 
well,  relates  that  he  never  saw  but  one 
woman  scold  her  children.  Women  did  not 
have  to  plant  corn  and  make  the  crops  as 
among  the  Northern  Indians.  Their  work 
was  to  cook  the  food  for  the  entire  family, 
to  bring  the  daily  supply  of  water  from  the 
spring,  at  which  lovers  often  met,  to  make 
pottery  of  all  kinds,  to  fashion  baskets  and 
mats,  to  spin  and  weave  and  to  make  lace 
and  fringe  for  their  dresses.  Women  went 
along  with  the  hunting  parties  to  carry  pro 
visions  and  get  firewood,  the  men  being  oc 
cupied  with  hunting. 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         19 

A  woman  did  not  have  to  pay  any  of  her 
husband's  debts  in  case  of  his  death ;  but  if 
she  married  again,  the  new  husband  had  to 
pay  all  of  them.  The  husband  could  trade 
off  his  wife  and  have  as  many  wives  as  he 
desired.-  If  he  parted  from  his  wife,  the 
children  remained  with  her,  although  he 
had  to  care  for  their  support.  The  young 
men  of  the  village  were  made  to  aid  widows 
in  the  support  of  their  children  by  plant 
ing  and  doing  other  work  which  could  not 
be  done  by  the  women. 

Slaves  were  the  prisoners  taken  in  war, 
who  were  kept  for  the  purpose  of  working 
in  the  fields  and  attending  to  the  wants 
of  their  masters.  Sometimes  a  slave's  feet 
were  permanently  injured  in  order  to  pre 
vent  his  escaping;  but  a  slave's  life  was  on 
the  whole  not  a  life  of  cruelty.  The  Westo 
Indians  were  great  slave  catchers  and  were 
said  to  be  man-eaters,  and  the  very  sound 
of  a  Westo's  footsteps  caused  the  other  In 
dians  to  tremble. 


20         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

CHAPTER  III. 
Indian  Town — Houses — Furniture. 

An  Indian  town  was  generally  so  situ 
ated  as  to  be  convenient  for  hunting  and 
easily  protected  from  sudden  surprise  by 
an  enemy,  with  a  large  tract  of  fertile  field 
close  at  hand,  if  possible,  in  a  bend  of  a 
river.  A  town  near  the  coast  is  described 
by  one  of  the  early  writers  as  on  the  edge 
of  a  forest,  the  houses  of  the  inhabitants 
straggling  among  fields  of  maize.  On  the 
south  side  was  a  spacious  meadow;  before 
the  door  of  the  Council  House  was  a  large 
and  broad  walk  with  a  row  of  trees  on  each 
side.  On  the  north  a  palisade  of  posts  pre 
vented  the  enemy  from  surprising  the  town 
in  that  direction. 

Houses,  or  wigwams,  were  made  of  poles 
of  pine,  cedar,  or  hickory,  the  larger  ends 
stuck  into  the  ground,  the  others  bent  in 
and  fastened  together  at  the  top.  The  whole 
was  covered  with  bark  of  cypress  or  cedar, 
or  even  with  moss.  For  summer  use  sheds 
open  on  all  sides  were  sometimes  used.  The 
Cherokees  built  houses  of  posts,  to  which 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         21 

canes  were  fastened  inside  and  outside  and 
plastered  with  white  clay.  These  cabins 
were  generally  constructed  with  a  width  of 
twelve  feet  and  a  length  of  twenty,  with 
one  door,  sometimes  two,  opposite  each 
other,  and  no  windows.  At  one  end  of  the 
cabin  was  a  fireplace  with  two  bedsteads 
on  each  side  made  of  canes  and  covered 
with  bear  skins. 

Two  or  three  families  would  unite  to 
build  a  "hot  house"  about  thirty  feet  in 
diameter  and  fifteen  feet  high,  in  the  form 
of  a  cone,  to  which  there  was  no  opening 
except  one  small  door  large  enough  to  crawl 
through.  A  fire  was  kept  burning  in  the 
center  of  the  building.  Here  the  owners 
slept  during  the  cold  winter  nights  on 
couches  round  the  walls. 

The  Town  House,  or  Council  House,  was 
a  large  building  circular  in  form,  having 
opposite  the  entrance  a  high  seat  capable 
of  holding  about  six  persons.  On  this  sat 
the  chief,  with  his  wife  at  his  right  hand. 
Benches  ran  round  the  walls  on  either  side 
from  the  throne  to  the  entrance.  In  the 
center  of  the  building  was  a  fire  which  was 


22         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

kept  constantly  burning  under  the  direc 
tion  of  the  high  priest. 

The  benches  on  which  the  people  sat 
during  the  day  were  at  night  covered  with 
bear  skins  and  used  for  beds.  Rugs  or  mats 
also  served  as  couches  to  sleep  on.  The 
cabins  were  said  to  be  as  hot  as  ovens  and 
filled  with  dirt  and  vermin.  The  kitchen 
utensils  consisted  of  pots,  bowls,  or  basins 
made  of  clay,  which  the  Indian  women 
were  very  expert  in  making.  Spoons  were 
shells;  gourds  made  excellent  cups.  A 
sharp  piece  of  flint  served  as  a  knife.  Axes 
were  wedge-shaped  stones  weighing  two 
or  three  pounds,  to  which  a  handle  was 
fastened  made  of  two  pieces  of  hickory 
twisted  around  the  notched  head  of  the  ax. 
A  mortar  for  beating  corn  was  made  by 
burning  a  hollow  on  the  top  side  of  a  log. 
Beating  corn  was  the  work  of  the  girls, 
four  of  whom  usually  worked  /together, 
keeping  time  as  they  beat. 

After  the  coming  of  the  white  men  the 
Indians  became  dependent  on  them  for  iron 
utensils  and  implements  of  work. 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         23 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Dress  of  the  Men — Dress  of  the  Women. 

In  warm  weather  very  little  clothing  was 
worn.  In  severe  weather  men  wore  a  coat 
of  hair,  fur  or  feathers,  which  was  known 
as  a  match-coat.  When  made  of  feathers, 
it  was  very  pretty,  having  figures  worked 
in  it  and  shining  like  silk.  Sometimes  these 
coats  were  made  of  the  green  parts  of  the 
skins  of  mallards'  heads  sewn  together  with 
the  sinews  of  deer  divided  very  small,  or 
with  silk  grass.  After  the  natives  became 
acquainted  with  the  white  man,  some  of 
them  adopted  a  costume  resembling  the 
kilts  of  the  Highlanders  of  Scotland.  On 
their  legs  were  cloth  leggins,  ornamented 
with  beads,  lace  or  tinsel ;  their  feet  were 
encased  in  shoes  of  dressed  deer  skin  known 
as  bucks  or  moccasins,  soft  and  fitting  the 
foot  as  a  glove  fits  the  hand.  Around  the 
neck,  suspended  by  a  ribbon  on  the  breast 
were  worn  large  silver  crescents.  The  head 
was  bound  with  a  very  curious  diadem 
about  four  inches  broad,  decorated  with 
stones,  beads,  porcupine  quills  or  feathers 
of  crane  or  heron.  The  young  men  as  well 


24         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA, 

as  the  young  women  were  fond  of  decorat 
ing  themselves. 

The  men  shaved  their  heads,  leaving  a 
narrow  crest  or  comb  about  two  inches 
broad  and  the  same  height  on  the  top  of 
the  head  widening  towards  the  back,  where 
it  was  ornamented  with  silver  quills  and 
plates.  The  middle  plait  of  hair  was  wrap 
ped  in  a  silver  quill,  or  run  through  a  reed, 
and  ended  in  a  tail.  To  the  ears  were  fas 
tened  huge  rings,  and  eagle,  heron  or  other 
birds'  feathers  were  placed  in  the  holes. 

They  rubbed  themselves  daily  with  bear's 
oil  to  keep  their  limbs  supple.  For  orna 
ment  they  painted  their  heads,  necks  and 
breasts  with  vermillion  paint,  which  they 
always  requested  in  asking  for  presents 
from  the  white  man.  They  often  tattooed 
their  bodies  with  figures  of  animals,  stars, 
flowers  and  pictures  that  formed  a  record 
of  their  deeds  in  war,  which  would  strike 
terror  in  their  enemies.  Warriors  who  had 
performed  some  gallant  exploit  in  war 
often  had  a  tomahawk  tattooed  on  the  left 
shoulder.  The  figure  to  be  tattooed  was 
first  pricked  on  the  skin,  after  which  pow 
dered  charcoal  was  rubbed  in. 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         25 

When  the  English  first  saw  the  Indians, 
the  women  of  the  coast  wore  garments  of 
moss  with  beads  of  many  colors  about  their 
necks.  They  bound  their  hair  in  a  long  roll 
like  a  horse's  tail,  wound  with  strings  of 
beads  made  from  shells  or  even  with  a 
leather  string.  Their  shoes  were  similar 
to  those  worn  by  the  men,  and  like  them  in 
severe  weather  they  protected  themselves 
by  means  of  match-coats.  Skins  of  the  bear 
and  of  the  deer  carefully  tanned,  some 
times  colored  and  checkered  with  red  and 
black,  also  served  to  keep  off  the  cold. 
When  they  were  able  to  obtain  the  goods 
manufactured  by  the  English,  the  women 
began  to  dress  in  skirts  and  waistcoats  of 
calico,  printed  linen  or  fine  cloth  decorated 
with  beads  and  lace,  and  to  plait  their  hair 
and  fasten  it  on  top  of  the  head  in  a  knot, 
to  which  were  tied  many  streamers  of  col 
ored  ribbon,  reaching  almost  to  the  ground. 
All  this  finery  was  reserved  for  particular 
occasions.  They  never  used  paint  on  their 
faces. 


26         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

CHAPTER  V. 
Agriculture — Hunting — Fishing — Cooking. 

The  whole  town  planted  in  one  vast  field, 
in  which  the  share  of  each  family  was 
marked  off  by  a  strip  of  grass  or  some  other 
natural  boundary.  It  very  rarely  happened 
that  anything  was  stolen  from  a  family's 
portion.  To  clear  a  field,  the  grass  and 
underbrush  were  burned,  and  the  smaller 
trees  cut  down ;  the  large  trees  were  dead 
ened  by  cutting  the  bark  in  a  ring  around 
the  base,  and  as  they  rotted  down  they 
were  removed  from  the  field.  The  soil  was 
dug  by  means  of  sharpened  sticks  or  shells 
on  the  ends  of  sticks,  until  the  hoe  was  in 
troduced  by  the  English.  Although  the  na 
tives  cultivated  only  the  poorest  ground, 
because  they  could  not  clear  the  best  on 
account  of  the  timber,  they  raised  good 
crops  of  corn — two  crops  in  a  year — beans, 
onions,  pumpkins,  watermelons  and  musk- 
melons.  They  also  cultivated  a  species  of 
peach.  In  the  woods  grew  acorns,  grapes, 
strawberries,  mulberries,  many  kinds  of 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         27 

nuts,  persimmons,  and  wild  potatoes. 

The  maize,  or  corn  crop  was  the  most 
important.  It  was  planted  by  the  men,  and 
the  Cherokees  put  seven  grains  in  each  hill, 
and  after  the  crop  had  been  harvested,  set 
aside  seven  ears  for  the  purpose  of  attract 
ing  the  corn  to  next  year's  crop.  When  the 
new  corn  had  been  worked  for  the  last 
time  the  priest  and  his  assistant  went  by 
night  to  the  middle  of  the  field  and  there 
built  an  enclosure,  in  which  the  priest  sang 
songs  for  four  successive  nights  calling  on 
the  spirit  of  the  corn.  A  loud  rustling  was 
soon  heard,  caused,  as  they  believed,  by  the 
"Old  Woman"  bringing  the  corn  into  the 
field.  For  seven  days  no  one  entered  the 
field,  when  the  priest  went  again  among 
the  corn  and  found  the  young  ears.  Care 
was  always  taken  to  keep  a  clean  trail  from 
the  field  to  the  house,  in  order  that  the  corn 
might  be  encouraged  to  stay  at  home  and 
not  wander. 

When  the  crops  were  ready  for  harvest 
ing,  the  families  of  the  village  assembled, 
and  each  carried  away  to  its  own  store 
house,  or  crib,  the  fruits  of  the  portion  of 
ground  alloted  to  it.  The  women  perhaps 


28         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

did  most  of  the  harvesting.  A  certain 
amount  was  taken  from  each  man's  store 
and  deposited  in  the  chief's  crib  as  a  sort 
of  public  treasury  to  which  each  family 
could  go  when  its  own  stock  was  used  up; 
and  from  his  crib  provisions  were  taken 
for  the  aid  of  neighboring  towns,  for  war, 
and  for  the  entertainment  of  travelers. 

The  forests  of  South  Carolina  abounded 
in  bears,  deer,  hares,  squirrels,  opossums, 
raccoons,  turkeys,  quails,  and  geese  and 
ducks  in  the  winter  season.  Buffalos  were 
once  very  numerous,  but  disappeared  be 
fore  the  white  man.  Panthers,  wolves  and 
other  beasts  of  prey  made  night  hideous 
with  their  cries. 

Hunting  was  the  occupation  of  the  men. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  winter  they  went 
out  in  great  numbers,  often  to  great  dis 
tances,  telling  the  direction  by  the  growth 
of  a  certain  moss  upon  the  trees.  Women 
went  along  to  do  the  cooking  and  carry  the 
provisions.  Cooking  went  on  all  day  and 
for  a  great  part  of  the  night,  and  during 
these  trips  the  Indians  lived  with  all  the 
mirth  and  jollity  of  which  they  were 
capable.  It  was  not  unusual  in  the  early 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         29 

days  of  the  colony  for  a  settler  to  hire  an 
Indian  to  supply  his  family  with  wild  meat, 
fish  and  fowl. 

Deer  were  hunted  by  means  of  a  disguise, 
which  enabled  the  hunter  to  come  close  to 
his  game.  He  put  on  a  coat  of  deer  skin 
with  the  hair  on  and  set  on  his  head  a 
buck's  head  to  which  enough  skin  had  been 
left  to  cover  the  hunter's  neck  and  fall  over 
his  shoulders.  The  eyes  of  the  buck  were 
in  some  way  unknown  preserved  as  if  liv 
ing.  In  this  garb  the  hunter,  on  his  hands 
and  knees,  was  able  to  creep  as  close  to  a 
deer  as  he  pleased.  Sometimes  it  happened 
that  two  hunters,  each  taking  the  other 
for  a  deer,  stalked  each  other,  and  one  was 
killed;  for  which  reason  this  method  of 
hunting  was  not  practiced  in  the  more  pop 
ulous  districts. 

By  firing  the  woods  for  many  miles  the 
hunters  drove  the  deer  and  other  game  into 
a  small  neck  of  land,  where  they  killed 
what  they  pleased. 

Bows  and  arrows  were  the  weapons  used 
by  the  hunter  until  he  obtained  the  gun 
from  the  English  colonists.  But  even  then 
turkeys,  ducks,  and  other  small  game  were 


30         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA, 

killed  by  means  of  the  bow  and  arrow. 

A  young  hunter  never  ate  of  the  first 
deer,  bear,  or  any  kind  of  game  that  he 
might  kill  for  fear  that  he  would  never 
afterwards  be  fortunate.  When  a  deer 
was  slain,  a  Cherokee  hunter  cut  out  the 
hamstring  from  the  hindquarter  and  threw 
it  away,  because  he  imagined  that  if  he 
ate  of  it  he  would  easily  tire  in  traveling. 
This  same  Indian  would  tell  you  that  all 
animals  were  divided  into  tribes  like  human 
beings,  and  that  the  chief  of  the  deer  tribe 
was  "Little  Deer/'  who  kept  constant  watch 
over  his  subjects  and  saw  that  no  one  was 
slain  for  mere  sport.  As  soon  as  a  deer  was 
killed  he  was  supposed  to  come  and  inquire 
of  the  blood  spilled  on  the  ground  if  the 
hunter  had  asked  pardon  for  the  life  he 
had  taken.  If  he  had  not  said  the  proper 
prayer  over  the  dead  deer,  Litjtle  Deer 
tracked  the  man  to  his  home  and  put  into 
his  body  the  spirit  of  rheumatism.  Once  in 
a  lifetime,  Little  Deer,  who  was  a  spirit, 
appeared  as  a  small  white  deer,  and  the 
hunter  who  was  so  fortunate  as  to  kill  this 
deer  and  secure  the  antlers  had  in  them  a 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         31 

charm  that  made  him  successful  in  every 
chase. 

The  hunter  avoided  the  wolf,  because  he 
believed  that  if  he  should  kill  a  wolf  he 
would  spoil  his  gun.  This  animal  could  be 
killed  only  by  a  professional  wolf-killer, 
who  knew  the  proper  charms  and  cere 
monies.  Likewise  the  eagle,  which  was  the 
sacred  bird  of  the  Cherokees,  could  be  slain 
only  by  the  eagle-killer.  Once  a  hunter  who 
did  not  know  the  ceremonies  over  the  dead 
bird  killed  an  eagle  and  was,  in  conse 
quence,  haunted  by  dreams  of  fierce  eagles 
swooping  down  upon  him  so  that  he  had 
to  go  to  a  priest  and  undergo  a  long  treat 
ment  before  the  dreams  left  him. 

The  rivers  and  ponds  abounded  in  fish. 
Oysters  were  plentiful  in  the  waters  of  the 
coast.  The  natives  displayed  great  skill  in 
taking  fish,  which  they  did  in  most  of  the 
ways  known  to  us.  A  favorite  method  was 
to  shoot  them  with  arrows,  or  to  spear 
them  with  cane  reeds  sharpened  and  the 
points  hardened  in  the  fire.  Fish  were 
usually  speared  in  the  night  by  the  light  of 
a  torch  which  was  carried  by  a  man  or  boy 
accompanying  the  fisherman.  Hooks  of 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

bone  and  lines  of  the  sinews  of  deer  were 
also  used;  but  traps,  wiers  and  nets  were 
the  usual  means  employed  to  catch  fish. 
By  means  of  horse-chestnuts  pounded  fine 
the  fish  in  ponds  were  stupified,  so  that 
they  floated  apparently  lifeless  on  the  top 
of  the  water  and  were  thus  captured.  The 
Indians  living  on  the  coast  dried  great 
quantities  of  fish  for  winter  use. 

But  the  natives  were  not  good  at  pro 
viding  against  the  necessities  of  the  future, 
and  it  not  unfrequently  happened  that  their 
small  stores  failed.  In  this  event  they  were 
compelled  to  live  on  roots,  the  tender  shoots 
of  plants,  and  whatever  other  edible  things 
they  could  find  in  the  woods. 

Before  the  Indians  learned  the  use  of 
the  flint  and  steel  from  the  white  man,  they 
obtained  fire  by  rubbing  two  stacks  to 
gether.  Over  the  fire  thus  made  the  wo 
man  prepared  the  food  for  the  family.  In 
a  large  earthen  pot  she  boiled  beans  and 
venison  together  as  a  soup,  of  which  all 
were  very  fond,  though  it  was  said  by  some 
tribes  that  soup  caused  shortness  of  wind, 
so  that  it  was  avoided  by  them.  Corn  was 
pounded  in  a  mortar  and,  with  the  husks 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         33 

removed,  was  boiled  as  hominy,  or  it  was 
mixed  with  bear's  oil  or  hickorynut  milk, 
which  was  the  oil  obtained  by  boiling  hick 
ory  nuts  and  walnuts  and  fried  in  cakes  or 

baked  as  bread.  Corn  was  also  parched 
and  pounded  into  meal,  which  was  used 
especially  by  parties  going  on  long  jour 
neys.  To  bake  loaves,  the  coals  were  re 
moved  from  a  part  of  the  hearth,  which 
was  swept  clean,  and  the  dough  placed 
upon  it  was  covered  with  an  earthen  dish, 
and  over  this  coals  were  heaped.  In  this 
way  a  very  fair  tasting  loaf  was  baked. 
Meat  was  also  roasted  as  well  as  boiled. 
Whatever  was  boiled  was  cooked  until  it 
was  well  done. 

There  were  no  tables  or  regular  hours 
for  eating;  but  each  took  his  portion  from 

the  pot  with  a  spoon,  which  was  generally 
made  of  a  shell,  and  ate  it  with  his  bread  or 
cake.  The  first  bit  taken  at  the  meal  was 
cast  into  the  fire  as  an  offering  of  thanks, 
as  we  ask  a  blessing  before  eating. 

It  was  a  common  belief  that  a  man  was 
like  the  food  that  he  ate.  Whoever  fed  on 
venison  was  sure  to  be  more  swift  than  he 
who  lived  on  the  flesh  of  the  clumsy  bear, 


34         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

the  slow-footed  ox,  or  the  heavy,  wallow 
ing  swine.  Some  of  the  most  renowned 
chiefs  entirely  avoided  the  flesh  of  animate 
slow  in  their  movements. 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         35 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Trade — Money — Mr.  Galphin  and  the 
Indian    Chief. 

The  natives  very  early  came  into  close 
relations  with  the  English  through  their 
desire  to  possess  many  of  the  things  which 
they  saw  used  by  the  latter,  and  also  the 
English  found  that  they  could  make  a  great 
profit  from  the  deer  skins  belonging  to  the 
Indians.  Some  of  the  earliest  settlers  ex 
changed  beads  and  old  clothes  with  the 
natives  for  deer  skins,  hens  and  earthen 
pots.  In  a  very  short  time  traders  had 
visited  the  tribes  several  hundred;  miles 
from  the  coast.  Goods  were  carried  up 
the  rivers  in  canoes  known  as  periaugoes, 
or  through  the  country  on  pack-horses. 
These  horses  were  driven  by  men  called 
pack-horse  men,  each  of  whom  carried  a 
tough  cowhide  whip.  When  the  sun  was 
already  high  in  the  heavens,  the  horses  in 
Indian  file,  an  old  one  in  the  lead,  began 
the  day's  journey,  and  a  trot  was  kept  up 
till  the  poor  creatures  could  go  no  farther. 
Each  horse  wore  a  bell,  so  that  the  con- 


36         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

stant  clatter  of  the  bells,  cracking  of  whips 
and  shouting  of  drivers,  who  used  words 
from  the  Indian  language,  caused  a  terrific 
din  and  confusion.  A  trader  owned  a  house 
in  some  Indian  town  and  often  married  a 
woman  of  that  place,  especially  that  he 
might  have  her  influence  in  inducing  the 
Indians  to  bring  their  skins  to  him.  Deer 
skins  took  the  place  of  money.  The  fol 
lowing  is  part  of  a  list  of  goods  sent  to  the 
Indian  country  in  1716,  with  the  prices  in 
buckskins: 

Guns:  value  of  each,  30  buckskins. 

Pistols:  value  of  each,  20  buckskins. 

Bullets:  value  of  50,  one  buckskin. 

Blankets:  value  of  each,   14  buckskins. 

Calico  dresses:  value  of  each,  12  buck 
skins. 

Shirts :  value  of  each,  4  buckskins. 

Laced  hats:  value  of  each,  8  buckskins. 

Hatchets:  value  of  each,  2  buckskins. 

Broad  hoes:  value  of  each,  4  buckskins. 

Butcher  knives:  value  of  each,  1  buck 
skin. 

Cizars  (scissors)  :  value  of  each,  1  buck 
skin. 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         37 

Salt,  kettles,  looking  glasses,  gunpowder, 
"as  you  can." 

The  trader  to  whom  these  goods  were 
sent  was  instructed  to  give  no  credit.  For 
a  long  time  it  was  against  the  law  to  sell 
firearms  or  ammunition  to  the  Indians,  and 
whiskey  was  also  forbidden,  of  which  they 
were  extremely  fond.  According  to  an 
early  history  of  the  Indians  of  Carolina, 
whiskey  was  at  one  time  measured  by  the 
mouthful,  and  the  buyer  made  choice  of 
his  man,  who  was  one  with  the  largest 
mouth  he  could  find.  If  he  swallowed  any 
of  the  liquor,  the  man  for  whom  he  was 
measuring  was  likely  to  give  him  a  severe 
beating,  so  that  the  bystanders  were  greatly 
amused  at  the  trading. 

The  current  money  among  the  Indians 
of  Carolina  was  peak,  roanok,  or  wampum 
made  from  conch-shells,  which  were  broken 
into  pieces,  and  then  each  of  these  was 
ground  into  a  small  cylinder.  These  cylin 
ders  were  pierced  and  strung  in  strings, 
about  eleven  feet  of  which  would  purchase 
one  buckskin.  Peak  was  white  or  purple, 
the  latter  beng  the  more  valuable.  It  was 
said  that  with  this  the  Indians  "buy  off 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

murders;  and  whatsoever  a  man  can  do 
that  is  ill,  this  wampum  will  quit  him  of, 
and  make  him  in  their  opinion,  good  and 
virtuous,  though  never  so  black  before." 

When  a  present  was  made  to  an  Indian, 
he  was  desirous  of  securing  another  larger 
than  the  first.  A  story  of  the  famous  trader, 
George  Galphin,  illustrates  this  craving  for 
presents,  and  also  the  superiority  of  the 
white  man  in  outwitting  the  Indian.  A 
great  chief  from  beyond  the  Savannah 
River  came  to  Mr.  Galphin's  trading  store 
and  the  next  morning  after  his  arrival  said 
to  the  trader,  "Me  dreamed  last  night/' 
"Ah,"  said  he,  "what  did  my  red  brother 
dream?"  "Me  dream  you  give  me  that  rifle, 
replied  the  chief,  pointing  to  a  fine  rifle  be 
longing  to  Mr.  Galphin.  "If  you  dreamed 
it,"  answered  Mr.  Galphin,  "you  must  have 
it;"  and  he  handed  the  rifle  to  the  Indian. 
Next  morning  the  white  man  said,  "I 
dreamed  last  night,"  and  the  chief  wish 
ing  to  know  what  he  had  dreamed,  he  told 
him  that  he  dreamed  he  had  received  as  a 
present  the  Chickesaw  stallion,  a  fine  horse 
which  the  chief  was  riding.  "If  you  dream 
um,  you  must  have  um,"  said  the  Indian, 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         39 

presenting  the  horse  to  the  trader.  Now 
was  the  red  man's  turn  to  dream,  and  his 
dream  was  for  the  red  coat  which  Mr.  Gal- 
phin  wore  and  for  much  calico.  These  he 
received,  for  he  had  dreamed  for  them,  and 
he  must  have  them.  Then  the  trader 
dreamed,  and  on  the  following  morning 
said,  "I  dreamed  last  night."  "What  you 
dream?"  asked  the  chief.  "I  dreamed," 
was  the  reply,  you  gave  me  ten  miles 
around  the  Ogeechee  Old  Town."  "Wugh," 
exclaimed  the  chief,  if  you  dream  um,  you 
must  have  um;  but  I  dream  with  you  no 


40         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Music — Dancing — Games — Knowledge     of 

Writing — Reckoning  of  Time — 

Canoes — Pipes. 

The  chief  musical  instrument  of  the  Car 
olina  Indians  were  a  drum  made  of  an 
earthen  pot  covered  with  a  piece  of  dressed 
deer  skin,  on  which  the  performer  beat 
with  a  single  stick,  and  a  rattle  or  gourd 
with  a  few  beans  in  it.  As  one  man  drum 
med,  the  other  beat  with  his  rattle  on  his 
hand  or  against  a  post.  A  song  accom 
panied  the  music,  which  was  admirable 
for  the  exact  time  of  the  singers,  but  was 
described  as  an  "unsavory  jargon."  An 
other  instrument  on  which  a  hideous  noise 
was  made,  was  a  flute  of  reed  or  of  the 
bone  of  a  deer's  leg.  This  music  was  the 
especial  pleasure  of  young  men. 

Every  evening  during  the  summer 
months  the  families  of  a  village  met  to 
dance  and  amuse  themselves.  The  most 
common  step  used  by  the  dancers  was  a 
sort  of  slow  shuffling,  both  feet  being 
moved  forward  one  after  the  other,  the 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         41 

right  foot  first.  The  young  men  moved 
in  a  circle  from  left  to  right,  and  the  young 
women  within  this  circle  shuffled  in  the 
opposite  direction.  At  the  end  of  each 
stanza  of  the  song  that  accompanied  the 
dance  the  young  women  clapped  their 
hands  and  raised  their  voices  in  answer  to 
a  shout  of  the  men,  who  also  struck  their 
arms  with  their  open  palms.  The  Indians 
were  said  to  have  been  able  to  dance  many 
nights  in  succession  without  wearying. 
They  danced,  in  fact,  so  violently  for  the 
purpose  of  accustoming  themselves  to  great 
fatigue.  It  is  related  of  a  French  dancing 
master  who  had  settled  near  the  coast  that 
he  taught  the  Indians  "country  dances/' 
and  got  a  good  estate. 

All  occasions  were  celebrated  by  dances 
so  that  there  were  dances  of  a  purely  so 
cial  character,  dances  at  the  time  of  sow 
ing  seed  and  of  harvest,  dances  at  the 
making  of  peace,  dances  in  going  to  war 
and  on  the  return,  dances  at  religious  fes 
tivals. 

Every  morning,  summer  and  winter  alike, 
the  men  swam  as  one  of  the  first  exercises 
of  the  day,  in  the  river  near  the  town. 


42         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

Swimming  was  supposed  to  make  them 
straight.  They  engaged  also  in  wrestling, 
jumping,  running,  throwing  and  games  of 
ball.  Football  was  a  favorite  sport;  but 
the  game  most  loved  and  esteemed  the  no 
blest  and  manliest  was  that  now  played  in 
Canada  as  lacrosse.  One  town  having  chal 
lenged  another,  the  players  met  on  the 
appointed  day,  and  having  exhorted  to  fair 
play  and  to  bring  the  glory  of  the  victory 
to  their  town,  they  gathered  at  the  center 
of  the  field.  Here  the  ball,  which  was 
made  of  deerskin  and  stuffed  with  deer's 
hair,  was  thrown  high  in  the  air.  As  it 
fell,  the  contestants  on  either  side  tried  to 
catch  it  in  the  net  at  the  end  of  the  ball- 
stick  and  hurl  it  towards  the  opponent's 
goal.  To  score,  the  ball  had  to  be  thrown 
between  the  two  poles.  Young  women 
played  this  game  as  well  as  young  men. 

Ball  players  did  not  eat  the  flesh  of  the 
hare,  because  it,  so  the  Indians  said,  be 
came  easily  confused  in  running. 

Another  game  often  played,  and  a  favor 
ite  among  all  the  Southern  Indians,  was 
Chunge,  or  Chunkey.  This  was  played  on 
the  "yard"  Or  alley  near  the  Council  House 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         43 

prepared  for  the  game,  being  about  two 
hundred  feet  long,  usually  with  a  hard  clay 
surface.  It  was  a  game  of  the  warriors, 
two  of  whom  played  at  a  time.  The  two 
started  at  a  run;  after  a  few  yards  one  of 
them  cast  with  all  his  might  a  round  stone, 
rolling  it  towards  the  center  of  the  opposite 
end.  As  it  rolled,  both  hurled  the  poles 
well  greased  with  bear's  oil,  which  they 
held  in  their  hands,  in  the  direction  it  was 
going,  with  the  view  to  making  them  stop 
as  near  as  possible  to  it  when  it  came  to 
rest.  If  a  player's  pole  touched  the  stone, 
he  was  given  two  points  on  the  game,  other 
wise  the  player  whose  pole  was  nearest 
scored  one  point.  Chunkey  was  so  fasci 
nating  to  the  Indians  that  the  players  would 
stake  even  the  clothes  they  were  wearing 
on  the  result. 

The  Indians  were  great  gamblers  and 
often,  after  losing  everything  else,  risked 
their  very  persons.  The  loser  became  the 
servant  of  the  winner  until  he  could  be  re 
deemed.  They  are  said  not  to  have  quar 
reled  over  their  games.  Dice  were  persim 
mon  seeds,  and  the  winning  or  losing  de- 


44         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

pended  on  which  side  fell  uppermost,  and 
how  they  happened  to  fall  together. 

The  natives  of  Carolina  had  no  system 
of  writing.  They  painted  signs  and  figures 
on  skins  and  scratched  rudely  on  wood, 
bone,  or  stone,  and  could  indicate  in  this 
way  the  direction  and  strength  of  a  war 
party.  When  a  treaty  of  peace  was  made, 
belts  of  wampum  were  exchanged  and 
kept  as  records  of  the  event,  a  narrative 
of  the  transaction  being  in  the  figures 
worked  on  them.  Distances  were  reckoned 
by  sleeps,  one  of  which  was  twenty-four 
hours.  A  man  was  as  old  as  the  number 
of  winters  he  had  lived.  The  year  was 
divided  into  thirteen  moons,  which  had 
names  from  the  principal  fruits  gathered, 
or  animals  hunted,  or  they  would  say,  "we 
will  return  when  the  dogwood  blooms,"  or 
"when  the  turkey  cocks  gobble."  Thus  the 
first  moon  was  the  "Deer"  moon ;  the  eighth 
the  "Turkey"  moon,  followed  by  the  "Buf 
falo"  and  "Bear"  moons;  the  year  ended 
with  the  "Walnut"  moon.  There  were 
three  divisions  of  the  day,  "the  sun's  com 
ing  out,"  "midday,"  and  "the  sun  fallen 
into  the  water."  The  time  of  day  was  de- 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         45 

termined  by  the  number  of  handbreadths 
the  sun  was  above  the  horizon.  The  Chero- 
kees  could  count  as  high  as  a  hundred.  A 
northwest  wind  was  called  "cold  wind," 
while  the  south  wind  was  known  as  the 
"warm  wind." 

To  build  a  boat,  a  tree,  if  possible  a  cy 
press,  was  felled,  and  a  part  of  it  was 
burned  off  the  length  of  the  boat.  This 
was  hollowed  out  by  means  of  fire  and  was 
scraped  smooth  inside  and  outside  with 
the  sharp  edge  of  shells.  Both  ends  were 
frequently  sharpened  and  curved  upward. 
Short  paddles  were  used  to  paddle  these 
eanoes,  which  were  sometimes  large 
enough  to  carry  forty  men. 

The  red  man  was  never  without  his  pipe, 
originally  a  gift,  it  was  said,  from  the  Great 
Spirit,  and  a  sign  of  peace  and  friendship. 
Women  also  smoked.  Pipes  were  made  of 
stone  and  of  clay.  The  common  clay  pipe, 
which  looked  very  much  like  the  pipe  of  to 
day,  disappeared  when  the  white  man  be 
gan  to  sell  his  pipes  to  the  Indians.  The 
choicest  pipes  were  cut  from  stone,  requir 
ing  months  of  labor  in  polishing  and  hol 
lowing  the  bowl,  as  there  were  no  iron  tools, 


46        THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

only  pieces  of  flint  stone  and  perhaps  a  cane 
reed,  with  sand  and  water,  for  a  drill.  But 
Indians  were  never  in  a  hurry  over  their 
work.  The  bowls  were  of  various  shapes — 
birds,  animals,  human  heads.  Stems  were 
originally  cane  reeds. 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         47 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Weapons— War    Titles— War— War- 
Women — Torture  of  Prisoners — 
Peace. 

The  chief  weapon  of  the  warrior  was  the 
bow  and  arrow.  Even  after  the  white 
man's  gun  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
Indian  he  continued  to  carry  his  bow  to 
war  with  him.  His  arrows  he  could  dis 
charge  in  rapid  succession  and  with  deadly 
aim,  with  such  force  that  they  could  pierce 
through  an  inch  or  more  of  pine  board.  A 
frightened  Spaniard  at  whom  the  Indians 
of  Florida  had  shot  declared  that  their 
arrows  would  go  through  a  tree  several 
inches  in  diameter.  The  arrows  were  of 
reed  cane  about  three  or  four  feet  long  and 
tipped  with  a  fish  bone  or  stone  chipped  to 
a  point.  The  flight  of  the  arrow  was  of 
ten  made  more  accurate  by  means  of  a 
feather  near  the  notch  in  the  end  of  the 
shaft.  Bows  were  usually  of  hickory,  or 
locust,  of  which  the  choicest  bows  were 
made,  the  length  being  about  four  feet.  A 
quiver  of  deer  or  panther  skin  hung  over 


48         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

the  left  shoulder  held  the  arrows  in  easy 
reach  of  the  warrior's  hand.  A  deer's 
sinew  formed  the  string  for  the  bow. 
Other  weapons  of  war  were  clubs  and  axes 
of  stone,  and  after  the  whites  came,  knives 
and  hatchets,  or  tomahawks.  The  Chero- 
kees  were  so  skilful  in  throwing  the  toma 
hawk  as  to  kill  with  it  at  a  considerable 
distance. 

The  young  Cherokee  warriors  were 
known  as  gun-men  and  could  be  summoned 
by  the  chief  to  act  as  his  servants  on  the 
march.  After  they  had  scalped  a  number 
of  the  enemy,  they  received  the  title  of 
"slave-catcher,"  from  which  they  could  rise 
to  that  of  "raven,"  and  from  that  to  the  dis 
tinction  of  "man-killer".  The  highest  title 
was  "warrior".  At  every  promotion  their 
necks,  cheeks  and  breasts  were  tattooed 
with  figures  indicating  their  rank.  The 
"warriors,"  or  "warrior  chiefs,"  led  the 
war  parties. 

When  it  had  been  determined  to  go  on 
the  warpath,  the  men  rid  themselves  of  all 
superfluous  flesh  under  the  direction  of  a 
medicine  man,  whose  influence  was  almost 
supreme  even  in  directing  the  movements 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         49 

of  the  party.  The  men  had  their  hair 
combed  out  by  the  women  and  greased 
with  bear's  oil  and  colored  with  a  red 
powder.  Eagle  feathers  decorated  the 
head  and  were  also  placed  in  the  ears  to 
which  strings  of  beads  and  rings  of  copper 
were  fastened.  The  face  was  painted 
with  vermillion,  often  all  over,  with  a 
circle  of  black  about  one  eye  and  of  white 
about  the  other,  or  it  was  daubed  with  clay 
of  different  colors,  or  with  soot  or  black 
lead.  More  hideous  objects  could  scarcely 
be  imagined. 

Before  the  party  left  the  town  the  war 
riors  drank  in  the  public  square  a  drink 
known  as  the  black  drink  and  danced  the 
war  dance,  in  which  they  indicated  by  ges 
tures  what  they  were  going  to  do  to  the 
enemy. 

The  old  men,  the  women  and  the  child 
ren  were  left  at  home.  With  a  war  party 
of  the  Cherokees  went  one  woman  for  the 
purpose  of  cooking  and  looking  after  the 
camp.  After  a  few  campaigns  she  was 
given  the  title  of  "war-woman,"  or  "pretty 
woman,"  and  all  prisoners  whom  she 
demanded  became  hers  to  do  with  as  she 


50         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

pleased.  Her  power  was  such  that  she 
could  declare  war.  There  were  only  a 
few  "war-women"  in  the  whole  Cherokee 
nation.  Traders,  in  order  to  rescue  a  pris 
oner,  would  bribe  one  of  these  women  to 
claim  him  as  her  slave,  and  afterwards 
secure  his  release  from  her.  In  order  to 
claim  him,  she  must  get  near  enough  to  lay 
her  hands  on  him  and  say,  "This  is  my 
man,"  so  that  she  often  had  to  resort  to  a 
disguise  to  prevent  his  being  killed  by  his 
captor,  who  might  otherwise  slay  him,  if 
she  was  seen  trying  to  approach. 

A  declaration  of  war  was  sometimes 
made  by  setting  up  arrows  along  the  path 
to  the  principal  town  of  the  enemy,  or  a 
defiance  was  sent  to  them  in  the  form  of  a 
verbal  message  or  of  a  weapon  painted  red. 
At  other  times  war  was  begun  without  pre 
vious  warning. 

When  the  leader  was  ready  to  start  he 
uttered  the  war-whoop,  or  fired  his  gun  as 
a  signal  to  his  followers,  who  came  immedi 
ately  after  him,  all  whooping  or  firing  their 
guns  in  token  of  defiance.  The  troop 
marched  after  the  leader  in  single,  or  In 
dian,  file,  each  man  stepping  in  the  tracks 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         51 

of  the  warrior  in  front,  the  last  man  often 
removing  all  traces  of  the  march  by  cover 
ing  the  tracks  with  grass  or  leaves.  Very 
little  food  was  eaten  during  the  march. 
Each  man  carried  a  small  bag  of  parched 
corn  ground  to  a  powder.  A  handful  of 
this  meal  he  mixed  with  a  pint  of  water  and 
swallowed,  and  in  this  way  he  was  able  to 
subsist  for  many  days.  To  drink,  he  dip 
ped  up  the  water  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand 
and  tossed  it  in  to  his  mouth.  It  is  said 
that  when  the  party  came  to  a  fallen  tree, 
instead  of  crossing  it,  they  went  around. 
At  night  they  lay  in  a  circle  around  the 
camp-fire  feet  inside,  their  weapons  ready 
beside  them.  No  one  moved  after  a  signal 
from  the  leader.  As  a  rule,  no  watch  was 
kept,  inasmuch  as  every  slight  noise  was 
sufficient  to  arouse  them  and  put  them  at 
once  on  the  alert. 

War  parties  were  always  small,  and  a 
pitched  battle  was  rare.  The  Indians 
always  tried  to  take  the  enemy  off  guard, 
attacking  suddenly  with  frightful  yells, 
which  were  meant  to  strike  terror  into  the 
hearts  of  the  foe.  If  repulsed,  they  came 
on  again;  but  a  steady  fight  was  unusual, 


52         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

nor  did  the  fighting  last  long.  Every  one 
was  slain  without  regard  to  age  or  sex. 
Few  prisoners  were  taken.  The  dead  and 
wounded  were  scalped,  which  the  victors 
accomplished  by  running  a  knife  point 
around  the  edge  of  the  hair  and  then  jerk 
ing  the  skin  off  the  head.  This  was  care 
fully  dried  and  preserved  as  a  trophy,  in 
some  towns  fastened  on  poles  above  the 
Council  House.  On  the  return  of  the  party 
there  was  a  dance  known  as  the  scalp 
dance,  in  which  the  wives  and  sweethearts 
of  the  warriors  carried  the  scalps  at  the 
ends  of  poles.  The  men  gave  an  account 
of  what  had  been  done  on  the  exepedition. 
Prisoners  who  were  kept  as  slaves  were 
treated  with  a  great  degree  of  kindness,  so 
that  even  white  prisoners  sometimes  pre 
ferred  to  remain  among  the  Indians  to 
going  back  to  their  own  people.  A  captive 
Indian  was  adopted  into  the  tribe  of  his 
captors;  by  his  own  people  he  was  usually 
regarded  as  dead.  When  a  prisoner  of 
distinguished  reputation  was  taken,  in  a 
spirit  of  revenge  and  exultation,  horrible 
tortures  were  inflicted  upon  him,  and  his 
life  was  prolonged  as  long  as  possible  be- 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         53 

fore  death  released  him  from  suffering. 
The  chief  tormenters  of  the  tortured  pris 
oner  were  the  women,  who  did  all  they 
could  to  break  his  spirit  and  make  him 
show  signs  of  weakness.  It  was  no  uncom 
mon  torture  to  stick  pine  splinters  into  his 
body  and  set  them  on  fire  and  make  him 
in  this  condition  dance  around  a  fire  until 
he  expired. 

To  test  the  courage  and  endurance  of  a 
prisoner,  his  captors  forced  him  to  "run  the 
gauntlet/'  that  is,  to  run  around  the  public 
square,  or  between  two  rows  of  Indians, 
and  receive  from  his  tormenters  blows  from 
sticks  and  clubs.  If  he  succeeded  in  reach 
ing  a  goal  that  was  pointed  out  to  him  he 
was  safe  for  the  time. 

In  almost  every  tribe  or  nation  there 
were  several  "peaceable"  towns  known  as 
"old  beloved,  ancient,  holy,  or  white 
towns,"  because  they  took  a  chief  part  in 
all  things  relating  to  peace.  Echota,  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Little  Tennessee  River, 
was  the  great  "white  town"  of  the  Chero- 
kees.  If  a  man  had  killed  another  and 
could  reach  one  of  these  towns  he  was  safe 
so  long  as  he  remained  there. 


54         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

Two  things  were  necessary  in  making  a 
treaty  of  peace,  the  peace-pipe  and  belts  of 
wampum,  which  were  both  white  in  color. 
The  peace-pipe  was  decorated  with  eagle's 
wings  and  served  as  a  flag  of  truce  to  the 
messengers  carrying  the  peace  proposals. 
If  the  pipe  was  received,  and  both  parties 
took  alternate  whiffs  from  it,  each  knew 
that  the  peace  would  be  acceptable.  The 
terms  of  the  treaty  were  then  agreed  upon. 
No  treaty  was  considered  binding  without 
the  delivery  of  a  belt  of  wampum  as  a  guar 
anty  and  memorial.  Various  designs  were 
worked  upon  the  belt  to  commemorate  the 
event.  In  the  language  of  the  red  man, 
the  treaty  was  to  remain  in  force  so  long  as 
the  sun  shone  and  the  rivers  ran  into  the 
sea.  Old  Hop,  the  "great  beloved  man"  of 
the  Cherokees,  sent  to  the  governor  of  Car 
olina  a  pipe  which  he  was  to  bring  with  him 
to  Keowee  (on  the  border  of  the  Indian 
country)  that  they  both  might  there  smoke 
it,  and  "the  people  of  Charleston  and  the 
Cherokees  in  the  mountains  might  see  the 
smoke  ascend  and  know  that  there  was 
peace." 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         55 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The   King — Great   War   Chief — Beloved 
Men — Punishment  for  Crime. 

In  every  town  or  tribe  there  was  a  head 
man,  chief,  king,  or  cassique,  as  he  was 
known  among  the  tribes  near  the  coast. 
This  ruler  was  for  the  most  part  elected 
by  the  people,  but  sometimes  the  office  was 
hereditary,  in  which  instance  the  son  of  the 
chief's  sister  was  the  heir.  He  presided 
over  the  council  of  beloved  men,  composed 
of  subordinate  chiefs,  warriors  and  others 
respectable  for  wisdom  and  valor,  which 
was  the  supreme  governing  body.  He  was 
honored  with  every  mark  of  love  and  re 
spect,  and  in  his  absence  no  other  could  sit 
in  his  seat.  Yet  he  associated  with  the  com 
mon  people  as  one  of  them,  often  not  dif 
fering  in  dress  from  the  average  man,  and 
his  house  not  being  superior  to  the  others. 
In  the  council  his  voice  was  no  more  than 
that  of  any  other  member,  and  his  advice 
was  taken  as  coming  from  the  wisest  and 
best  man  of  the  tribe.  The  king  of  the  San- 
tee  Indians  had  the  power  of  life  and  death 


56         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

over  his  subjects.  A  chief's  office  was  for 
life,  or  during  good  behavior.  Occasionally 
a  tribe  was  governed  by  a  woman. 

Next  to  the  king  in  power  and  dignity 
was  the  Great  War  Chief,  or  Warrior  Chief, 
who  led  the  forces  of  the  tribe  in  time  of 
war.  His  voice  was  most  important  in  mil 
itary  matters;  but  when  the  king  went  out 
with  a  war  party,  he  was  in  command.  His 
seat  in  the  council  was  on  the  left  of  the 
king. 

The  council  of  beloved  men  met  in  the 
council  house  in  matters  that  required 
secrecy.  Every  day  the  king,  the  beloved 
men  and  the  warriors  met  in  the  public 
square  to  smoke  their  pipes  and  discuss  the 
news  of  the  day.  The  most  slow  and  de 
liberate  debate  was  employed  in  all  mat 
ters.  When  an  aged  man  was  speaking,  he 
was  listened  to  with  the  greatest  attention 
and  with  perfect  silence.  In  fact,  no  orator 
was  interrupted  in  the  midst  of  his  speech. 
After  every  man  had  given  his  opinion,  of 
all  the  opinions  the  one  prevailed  which 
had  most  voices,  or  was  found  to  be  most 
reasonable.  There  was  no  wrangling 
among  the  members  of  the  council. 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         5T 

When  a  man  was  murdered,  the  nearest 
relative  was  required  to  slay  the  murderer ; 
but  he  could  be  bought  off,  and  the  mur 
derer  go  free.  If  an  Indian  killed  a  white 
man,  his  tribe  refused  to  give  him  up  until 
forced  to  do  so  for  the  general  safety.  In 
place  of  the  murderer  some  relative  could 
suffer  the  penalty.  A  Chickesaw  Indian 
was  demanded  by  the  English  that  they 
might  put  him  to  death  for  the  murder  of 
a  white  man.  His  uncle  offered  himself  in 
his  place  and  did  actually  cut  his  own 
throat  with  a  butcher  knife.  At  the  same 
time  he  sent  his  nephew  a  message  to  be 
have  himself  for  the  future,  since  he  had  no 
more  uncles  to  die  for  him. 

The  natives  rarely  stole  from  one  of  their 
race.  If  an  Indian  was  convicted  of  steal 
ing  from  another's  cornfield,  he  was  com 
pelled  to  work  for  the  man  whom  he  had 
robbed  until  he  had  repaid  all. 

A  person  guilty  of  poisoning  was  con 
demned  to  death  with  horrible  tortures.  He 
was  seated  on  the  ground  in  the  midst  of 
the  assembled  tribe,  and  the  executioner, 
cutting  the  skin  of  his  wrists,  pulled  off  the 
skin  of  his  hands  like  a  glove.  Then  his 


58         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

bones  were  broken,  and  he  was  beaten  to 
death  with  violent  blows.  After  death  had 
put  an  end  to  his  tortures  his  body  was 
burned,  and  the  ashes  were  cast  into  the 
river. 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         59 

CHAPTER  X. 
Medicine   Man — Medicine — Tooth   Pulling. 

A  very  important  man  in  the  village  was 
the  conjurer,  or  medicine  man,  who  was 
also  a  priest.  His  knowledge  of  the  healing 
properties  of  plants  gave  him  a  decided  ad 
vantage  over  the  others,  besides  his  ability, 
as  the  natives  believed,  to  communicate 
with  spirits.  With  him  were  several  junior 
priests  or  students,  who  always  wore  a 
white  mantle  and  often  carried  on  their 
arm  a  stuffed  owl.  As  they  strolled  about 
town  with  solemn  countenance  and  digni 
fied  step,  they  sang  softly  to  themselves. 
These  "jugglers,"  or  conjurers,  professed 
to  be  able  to  procure  rain  and  seasons  favor 
able  for  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  bring 
droughts,  expel  evil  spirits,  direct  thunder 
and  lightning,  and  predict  the  result  of  an 
expedition. 

Diseases  were  supposed  to  be  caused  by 
evil  spirits,  and  the  doctor's  efforts  were 
directed  for  the  most  part  to  driving  these 
away.  A  Cherokee  tradition  said  that  ani 
mals  and  fishes  had  once  decided  to  send 


60         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

sickness  and  disease  upon  men,  in  order  to 
be  revenged  for  the  way  in  which  they 
were  being  slain.  So  men  began  to  be  sick. 
But  all  the  trees,  plants,  and  moss  and 
grass  took  the  side  of  man,  and  when  a 
man  was  attacked  by  a  disease,  the  spirit 
of  the  plant  that  could  cure  it  made  the 
plant  known,  and  so  medicine  came.  The 
Indian  doctor  had  a  wonderful  knowledge 
of  the  healing  power  of  plants.  Every  other 
day  there  was  drunk  by  every  one  a 
draught  of  a  tea  made  from  the  leaves  of 
the  yaupon,  commonly  called  "black 
drink."  This  drink  was  also  taken  before 
any  business  of  a  public  nature  was  begun. 

When  the  doctor  came  into  the  cabin  the 
patient  was  laid  on  his  back  upon  a  mat. 
After  bleeding  the  sick  man,  the  doctor 
began  to  mutter  and  "cut  capers,"  till  you 
would  have  thought  that  he  was  going 
crazy,  stopping  now  and  then  to  draw  more 
blood.  At  last  he  made  an  end  and  told 
the  patient's  friends  whether  he  was  going 
to  live  or  die. 

There  were  no  surgeons  to  cut  off  injured 
limbs,  and  the  man  who  was  wounded 
either  recovered  or  died.  Owing  to  the 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         61 

hardiness  of  the  red  man,  he  often  recov 
ered  from  wounds  that  would  have  caused 
the  death  of  a  white  man;  and  also  the 
Indian  medicine  man  had  great  skill  in 
healing  wounds.  For  rheumatism  and 
stiffness  of  joints  the  patient  was  put  in  a 
tight  cabin  with  a  fire  and  sweated.  Rub 
bing  with  bear's  oil  kept  the  limbs  supple. 
A  tooth  that  had  to  come  out  was  not 
pulled,  but  it  was  knocked  out  by  means 
of  a  small  reed  with  a  bit  of  leather  on  the 
end.  This  method  of  getting  rid  of  an  ach 
ing  tooth  was  said  to  be  easier  than  pulling 
as  practiced  by  the  white  dentists  of  that 
time. 


62         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 


CHAPTER  XL 

Burial  Ceremonies — Good  and  Evil  Spirits. 
Heaven — Idols — Charms — Busk. 

The  funeral  ceremonies  varied  accord 
ing  to  the  rank  of  the  dead  man.  Women 
were  buried  without  any  of  the  ceremonies 
granted  to  men.  When  a  great  man  died 
his  body  lay  for  a  day  and  a  night  in  a 
house  built  for  the  purpose,  mourned  over 
by  the  nearest  relatives.  The  persons  in 
charge  of  the  burial  then  went  into  the 
village  and  from  the  first  young  men  they 
met  took  such  blankets  and  match-coats 
as  they  needed.  In  these  the  body  was 
wrapped,  and  two  or  three  mats  rolled 
around  them.  Over  all  was  a  large  mat, 
which  was  tied  at  both  ends,  for  a  coffin. 
The  dead  man  was  now  taken  to  the  peach 
orchard,  where  a  medicine  man  delivered 
a  long  oration  to  the  assembled  relatives, 
in  which  he  recounted  the  brave  deeds  of 
their  deceased  relation,  how  great  he  was, 
and  what  happiness  would  be  his  in  the 
next  world.  From  here  the  whole  nation 
accompanied  the  corpse  to  the  grave,  which 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         63 

was  about  eight  feet  long  and  six  feet  deep. 
Into  this  it  was  lowered  upon  a  layer  of 
bark  and  covered  tightly  with  a  sort  of  roof, 
upon  which  was  heaped  the  earth  that  had 
come  from  the  grave.  After  the  flesh  had 
fallen  from  the  bones  they  were  taken  up, 
cleaned  and  jointed  and,  dressed  in  white 
deer  skin,  laid  away  in  the  cabin  where 
the  bones  of  the  great  men  rested.  If  the 
tribe  moved,  the  bones  were  carried  to  the 
new  home. 

Every  night  while  the  body  lay  in  the 
grave,  the  relatives  of  the  dead  man  came 
to  it  and  wept  and  howled  in  a  most  dis 
mal  manner,  their  faces  blacked  with  soot 
and  bear's  oil.  Tears  were  shed  by  hired 
mourners,  who  were  said  to  have  been  very 
expert. 

As  life  in  the  next  world  was  supposed 
to  be  like  this,  many  tribes  buried  with 
the  dead  man  his  gun,  his  best  bow,  a 
quiver  full  of  arrows,  and  everything  that 
would  be  of  use  to  him. 

All  Indians  believed  in  the  existence  of 
a  good  and  a  bad  spirit.  The  good  spirit, 
whom  the  Cherokees  called  "Great  Man," 
and  the  Catawbas  "Overseer,"  was  regard- 


64         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

ed  as  the  creator  of  all  things,  who  taught 
men  how  to  overcome  the  wild  beasts  of 
the  forest  and  make  animals  to  be  ser 
vants  of  man.  The  bad  spirit,  they  said, 
tormented  people  with  sickness,  disap 
pointment,  hunger  and  all  ill  fortune  that 
came  to  them. 

Heaven  was  supposed  to  be  in  this  world 
at  a  great  distance,  to  which  went  those 
men  who  had  been  good  hunters,  brave 
warriors,  just  and  upright,  and  had  done 
all  the  good  they  could.  These  lived  in  a 
warm  and  pleasant  country,  where  were 
green  and  flowery  meadows  and  great  for 
ests  filled  with  deer  and  all  kinds  of  game. 
They  had  everything  that  they  could  de 
sire.  On  the  other  hand,  Indians  who  had 
been  lazy,  had  stolen  from  other  Indians, 
or  had  been  bad  hunters  and  warriors  and 
of  no  use  to  the  nation,  these  went  to  the 
country  where  they  were  always  hungry 
and  cold,  and  snakes  and  ugly  women  were 
their  companions. 

The  old  traveler  whom  we  have  men 
tioned  before  says  that  in  the  cabin  where 
the  bones  of  the  great  men  were  deposited 
were  also  kept  idols;  but  in  reality  the  na- 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         65 

lives  of  Carolina  were  not  worshippers  of 
idols:  the  great  objects  of  their  adoration 
were  the  sun  and  the  moon.  Every  morn 
ing  when  the  king  rose,  he  went  to  the 
door  of  his  cabin  and,  as  the  sun  came  up, 
he  blew  a  puff  of  smoke  from  his  pipe  to 
ward  it  in  token  of  greeting.  At  the  time 
of  planting  corn  and  beans  there  was  set 
up  in  the  field  a  sort  of  idol  dressed  up  as 
an  Indian^  which  the  old  men  told  the 
young  was  the  spirit  of  a  famous  warrior 
come  back  to  see  how  they  did  their  work, 
and  if  they  had  done  well,  he  would  go 
back  and  tell  the  good  spirit,  who  would 
send  them  plenty  of  corn  and  make  them 
all  skilful  hunters  and  mighty  warriors. 

The  Cherokees  believed  in  a  spirit  peo 
ple  who  would  make  themselves  visible  and 
could  not  be  told  from  real  men  and  wo 
men.  There  were  spirits  that  dwelled  in 
the  wigwams,  though  no  one  ever  saw 
them.  Tsawasi  was  the  name  of  a  tiny 
fellow  who  lived  in  the  grass  on  the  hill 
side,  and  to  him  hunters  prayed  for  skill 
to  creep  up  on  the  deer  through  the  long 
grass  without  being  seen.  A  mischievous 
little  spirit  was  Detsata,  who  was  fond  of 


66         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

hiding  the  arrows  of  the  hunter  and  fright 
ening  up  flocks  of  birds. 

Every  one  wore  a  charm  of  some  kind 
to  keep  off  evil  spirits.  The  hunter  who 
was  fortunate  enough  to  possess  some  of 

the  powder  from  the  madstone  which  was 
found  in  the  stomach  of  a  deer  could,  it 
was  believed,  put  a  little  of  it  in  his  eye 
and  see  much  more  clearly.  The  warrior 
had  his  "war  medicine"  to  prevent  him 
self  from  being  slain.  Some  noted  war 
riors  were  supposed  to  be  able  to  change 
shape  as  they  pleased;  others,  that  they 
could  dive  under  the  ground  and  come  up 
among  their  friends.  It  was  said  that  a 
few  chiefs  were  able  to  put  their  lives  up 
in  a  tree  while  the  battle  was  raging,  so 
that  even  if  their  bodies  were  struck  they 
would  not  be  killed. 

Almost  every  month  had  its  festival ;  but 
the  great  religious  festival  was  the  cele 
bration  of  the  ripening  of  the  corn,  known 
as  the  Busk,  or  "green-corn  dance."  Each 
town  held  its  own  celebration  at  the  ripen 
ing  of  its  corn.  The  old  clothes,  pots,  pans 
and  household  furniture  were  destroyed 
and  replaced  by  new;  the  old  grain  re- 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         67 

maining  from  the  preceding  year  was 
burned ;  the  town  was  cleansed  of  all  its 
filth.  Criminals  were  pardoned,  and  their 

crimes  were  forgotten.  Every  fire  was  put 
out,  and  for  three  days  the  inhabitants 
drank  black  drink  and  fasted.  On  the 
morning  of  the  fourth  day  the  chief  priest 
made  a  new  fire  in  the  public  square  by 
rubbing  two  sticks  together,  and  every 
cabin  was  supplied  with  a  new  clean  fire. 
Then  the  women  went  out  into  the  fields 
and  gathered  fruits  and  corn,  with  which 
they  prepared  dishes  for  the  men,  that 
they  might  eat  of  them  in  the  town  square. 
What  was  left  the  women  and  children  ate 
in  their  homes.  The  entire  night  follow 
ing  was  devoted  to  dancing  and  singing. 
And  four  days  were  then  spent  rejoicing 
with  their  friends  and  in  receiving  and 
paying  visits. 


68         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

The  White  Mian  and  the  Red  Man — Indian 
Wars. 

A  Spanish  expedition  landed  in  1520  on 
the  coast  of  South  Carolina,  or  Chicora, 
as  the  natives  called  the  country.  Here,  so 
the  sailors  were  told,  lived  a  race  of  giants 
and  a  people  with  tails.  These  giants  were 
said  to  be  made  by  being  fed  on  a  special 
kind  of  food  and  by  having  their  limbs 
stretched  when  they  were  infants  to  make 
them  large.  When  the  Spaniards  sailed 
away,  they  carried  off  some  of  the  Indians 
to  sell  as  slaves.  This  cruel  treatment  was 
afterwards  the  cause  of  much  suffering  to 
the  Spaniards  who  returned  to  this  part  of 
America. 

Half  a  century  later  a  Spanish  priest, 
Father  Rogel,  came  from  the  Spanish  set 
tlements  in  Florida  to  the  country  north 
of  the  Savannah  River  in  order  to  convert 
the  natives  to  Christianity.  In  six  months 
he  was  able  to  preach  to  them  in  their  own 
language.  His  congregation  was  beginning 
to  show  signs  of  earnestness,  and  he  was 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         69 

dreaming  of  success  when  his  whole  flock 
suddenly  disappeared  in  the  forest.  They 
had  gone  to  gather  acorns  for  the  winter. 
He  followed  them  and  in  eight  months  de 
cided  that  they  were  ready  for  baptism 
and  called  a  council  of  the  chiefs,  to  whom 
he  proposed  that  the  tribe  should  accept 
the  new  faith.  To  his  amazement  they 
unanimously  cried  out  that  they  preferred 
to  keep  the  evil  spirit,  for  they  adored  him 
because  he  made  men  valiant.  Father 
Rogel  then  gave  up  trying  to  convert  these 
Indians. 

The  famous  explorer  Hernando  de  Soto 
seems  to  have  crossed  the  Savannah  into 
what  is  now  South  Carolina  near  where 
Augusta  stands.  A  powerful  queen  lived 
here,  whom  the  explorer  forced  to  follow 
him  and  to  furnish  him  with  carriers ;  but 
she  escaped  taking  one  of  the  Spaniards 
with  her.  Soto  was  in  search  of  gold  and 
silver  and  was  perhaps  looking  for  the 
mines  in  the  upper  part  of  the  State.  About 
the  time  that  Father  Rogel  was  trying  to 
convert  the  Indians  the  Spaniards  opened 
gold  mines  and  worked  them,  as  the  old 
shafts  have  proved. 


70         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

The  English  did  not  try  to  Christianize 
the  natives,  but  entering  into  friendly  re 
lations  with  them  began  at  once  to  ex 
change  goods  for  such  produce  as  they 
raised  and  for  skins.  As  early  as  1700 
the  Indian  trade  was  so  good  that  those 
who  engaged  in  it  were  said  to  become  rich 
sooner  than  in  any  other  way.  Not  many 
years  after  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  traders  had  reached  more  than 
a  thousand  miles  inland.  A  commission 
was  appointed  to  control  and  regulate  this 
trade,  which  grew  to  large  proportions  and 
lasted  until  shortly  before  the  Revolution, 
when  the  settling  of  the  up-country  by  the 
whites  drove  out  all  game. 

Indians  were  used  as  slaves  by  the  plant 
ers,  who  bought  them  from  neighboring 
tribes.  They  were  mostly  captives  taken 
in  war.  Indian  slaves  were  also  sold  for 
service  in  the  West  Indies  and  New  Eng 
land. 

The  Kussoes  were  the  first  of  the  Indian 
tribes  to  act  in  a  hostile  manner  towards 
the  English.  They  declared  themselves 
friends  of  the  Spaniards  and  said  that  with 
their  help  they  intended  to  destroy  the  Eng- 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         71 

lish  settlements.  Captains  Gray  and  God 
frey,  who  were  placed  in  command  of  the 
two  companies  that  were  quickly  raised, 
within  one  week  invaded  the  territory  of 
the  Kussoes  and  took  many  prisoners.  This 
bold  stroke  put  an  end  to  the  hostilities. 

The  dreaded  Westoes,  the  most  power 
ful  tribe  between  Charles  Town  and  the 
Savannah  River,  kept  the  colonists  in  a 
state  of  fear  for  several  years.  It  finally 
became  necessary  to  order  that  none  of  the 
friendly  Indians  should  guide  them  to  the 
settlement,  and  that  if  they  came  near  it 
would  be  at  their  peril.  The  Westoes  were 
slave-catchers,  taking  captive  their  more 
feeble  neighbors  and  selling  them  as  slaves, 
often  to  the  planters.  Finally  the  Savan 
nahs  or  Yemassees  who  lived  on  the  Sa 
vannah  River,  defeated  the  Westoes  and 
drove  them  from  the  province. 

In  the  autumn  of  1711  the  Tuscaroras 
from  across  the  North  Carolina  border  sud 
denly  attacked  the  settlements  in  South 
Carolina  and  "flying  like  demons  from 
house  to  house"  massacred  one  hundred 
and  thirty  settlers  of  all  ages.  Colonel  John 
Barnwell  was  despatched  with  a  small 


72         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

band  of  whites  and  numerous  friendly  In 
dians,  Cherokees,  Creeks,  Catawbas,  Yem- 
assees  and  others  to  punish  them.  After 
a  long  march  through  the  wilderness  the 
expedition  reached  the  stronghold  of  the 
Tuscaroras,  having  killed  and  captured 
many^of  them  on  the  way.  The  stronghold 
was  a  town  surrounded  with  a  breastwork 
of  wood.  Here  Colonel  Barnwell,  who  had 
been  wounded,  made  peace  and  returned 
to  South  Carolina.  The  South  Carolinans 
had  scarcely  reached  home  when  they 
were  again  called  out  to  take  the  field : 
the  Tuscaroras  had  begun  a  second  mas 
sacre.  From  the  Congarees  Colonel  Moore 
advanced  to  meet  them  in  December,  1712, 
with  forty  whites  and  eight  hundred  In 
dians  and  after  a  trying  march  found  a 
large  force  of  the  Tuscaroras  well  provided 
with  arms  and  well  fortified  on  the  Taw 
River.  After  a  siege  of  a  few  hours  Col 
onel  Moore  took  the  fort,  killing  two  hun 
dred  and  capturing  eight  hundred  of  the 
enemy,  whom  he  turned  over  to  his  savage 
allies.  These  sold  the  captives  as  slaves  on 
their  return  to  South  Carolina. 

Three  years  later  the  Yemassees,  uniting 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         73 

with  other  tribes  from  St.  Augustine  to 
Cape  Fear  and  so  completely  surrounding 
the  English  broke  out  into  a  war  that 
threatened  to  destroy  the  colony.  Having 
knowledge  of  the  approaching  danger, 
Governor  Craven  sent  Captain  Nairn  and 
Mr.  John  Cochran  to  find  out  the  cause  of 
the  uneasiness  among  the  Yemassees  and 
to  offer  them  immediate  satisfaction.  The 
Indians  pretending  to  be  friendly  prepared 
a  good  supper  for  the  visitors ;  but  at  day 
break  they  began  a  massacre  of  the  whites. 
More  than  ninety  persons,  among  them 
Captain  Nairn  and  Mr.  Cochran,  were 
killed  at  Pocotaligo  and  the  vicinity.  The 
planters  in  the  neighborhood  of  Port  Royal, 
warned  in  time,  to  the  number  of  three 
hundred,  escaped  by  going  on  board  a  mer 
chant  vessel  that  happened  to  be  in  the 
harbor. 

When  Governor  Craven  heard  of  the 
massacre  on  his  way  to  Pocotaligo,  he  gath 
ered  as  many  men  as  he  could  and  marched 
at  once  on  the  enemy  with  orders  to  Col 
onel  Mackay  to  meet  him  at  the  Yemassee 
Town.  He  encamped  at  night  sixteen  miles 
from  the  town  and  was  attacked  early  next 


74         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

morning  by  five  hundred  Yemassees ;  but 
in  spite  of  the  surprise  he  put  his  men  in 
order  and  routed  the  enemy  after  a  short 
fight.  He  then  returned  to  Charles  Town. 
Colonel  Mackay  on  his  part  surprised  the 
Indians  and  drove  them  from  the  town. 
Two  hundred  took  refuge  in  another  fort. 
"A  young  stripling  named  Palmer"  scaled 
the  walls  of  the  fort.  Driven  back,  he 
returned  and  drove  out  the  Indians,  who 
were  shot  down  by  Colonel  Mackay's  men. 

A  party  of  four  hundred  Indians  came 
down  towards  Goose  Creek,  where  they 
were  met  by  Captain  Barker,  whose  treach 
erous  Indian  guide  led  him  into  an  ambush. 
Several  of  his  men  were  killed,  and  the 
rest  were  compelled  to  retreat.  On  one 
plantation  seventy  white  men  and  forty 
negroes  who  rashly  listened  to  an  offer  of 
peace  were  butchered  almost  to  a  man.  The 
Indians  were  met  by  Captain  Chicken  and 
the  Goose  Creek  militia  and  after  a  long 
engagement  were  defeated  and  driven 
back. 

It  began  to  look  very  dark  for  the  col 
ony.  Plantations  and  settlements  beyond 
twenty  miles  of  Charleston  were  deserted ; 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         76 

but  help  came  from  Virginia.  Governor 
Craven  established  a  line  of  garrisons  for 
the  protection  of  the  capital  while  the 
rangers  were  ever  on  the  alert  for  a  skirm 
ish.  The  Yemassees  were  finally  driven  out 
of  the  province  and  moved  to  Florida. 

Three  classes  of  pioneers  ipushed>  out 
into  the  wild  "Back  Country"  opening  the 
way  for  the  permanent  settlers.  The  first 
class  was  the  hunters,  who  penetrated  into 
the  forests  in  search  of  skins,  forming  no 
lasting  settlements,  but  making  friends 
with  the  red  man.  After  the  hunter  came 
the  Indian  trader,  who  often  married  a 
wife  from  one  of  the  tribes  with  which  he 
was  trading.  Cattle  drivers,  the  third  class, 
followed  the  trader  and  the  hunter.  They 
often  owned  immense  herds  of  cattle,  for 
which  they  built  huge  pens  in  clearings 
in  the  forest  for  the  purpose  of  rounding 
up  their  cattle  at  certain  times.  Many  of 
these  pens  grew  into  settlements. 

In  1730  the  English  government  sent  Sir 
Alexander  Gumming  with  an  embassy  to 
the  Cherokee  country.  Six  of  the  leading 
chiefs  went  back  to  England  with  Sir  Al 
exander,  where  they  were  most  hand- 


76         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

somely  entertained  and  were  received  at  a 
special  reception  by  the  king,  who  put 
around  the  neck  of  the  oldest  chief  a  neck 
lace  taken  from  his  own  neck.  Presents 
were  exchanged,  the  Indian  spokesman  giv 
ing  a  bunch  of  feathers  as  a  sign  that  the 
words  of  the  Cherokees  were  true.  The 
treaty  that  was  made  was  to  last  "as  long 
as  the  rivers  shall  run,  as  long  as  the  moun 
tains  shall  stand." 

Every  effort  was  put  forth  to  keep  the 
peace.  The  Indians  became  more  and  more 
dependent  on  the  whites  for  clothes,  house 
hold  utensils  and  weapons,  even  the  toma 
hawk,  which  was  bought  from  the  white 
man.  They  urged  insistently  that  the  Eng 
lish  should  build  a  fort  near  Keowee,  a 
principal  town  of  the  lower  Cherokees,  as 
a  protection  to  the  Indian  trade.  Gover 
nor  Glen  at  last  in  1753  bought  land  and 
built  the  fort,  to  which  he  gave  the  name 
Fort  Prince  George.  He  is  also  said  to 
have  obtained  from  the  Indians  in  this  year 
the  greater  part  of  the  "Up-country,"  so 
that  it  was  made  secure  for  the  white  set 
tlers  who  began  to  pour  in  from  the  older 
colonies  and  even  from  Europe. 


\ 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         77 

During  the  French  and  Indian  War  some 
of  the  Indians  who  had  accompanied  the 
South  Carolina  troops  to  Virginia  deserted 
and  committed  a  number  of  murders,  while 
others  stole  horses  from  the  white  settlers 
in  the  back  country  of  Virginia.  Several 
Indians  were  killed.  Thereupon  the  sav 
ages  massacred  the  settlers  on  the  border. 
Governor  Lyttleton,  the  successor  of  Gov 
ernor  Glen,  did  not  understand  the  Indian 
character  and  treated  with  indignity  the 
Cherokee  chiefs  who  came  to  Charles  Town 
to  hold  a  talk  for  the  purpose  of  avoid 
ing  war.  These  the  governor  carried  with 
him  as  prisoners  on  his  march  to  the  Con- 
garees  and  from  there  to  Fort  Prince 
George,  where  they  were  imprisoned.  Some 
of  the  murders  were  brought  in.  A  treaty 
of  peace  was  made  with  six  of  the  chiefs 
by  which  the  chiefs  imprisoned  at  the  fort 
should  remain  there  until  an  equal  number 
of  the  murderers  were  surrendered. 

Governor  Lyttleton  had  scarcely  returned 
to  Charles  Town  when  white  men  were 
killed  within  a  mile  of  Fort  Prince  George. 
The  fort  was  itself  besieged,  the  comman 
der  was  slain,  and  a  massacre  of  the  pris- 


78         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

oners  in  consequence  took  place.  The 
furious  savages  fell  on  the  unprotected 
whites  and  slew  without  regard  to  age  or 
condition.  To  protect  the  "Back  Country," 
as  this  part  of  the  colony  was  called,  seven 
companies  of  rangers  were  authorized  by 
the  General  Assembly.  North  Carolina  and 
Virginia  were  called  on  to  furnish  aid 
against  the  Indians.  Colonel  Montgomery, 
who  arrived  in  Charles  Town  at  this  time 
with  1,200  troops,  united  with  the  pro 
vincials  and  moved  against  the  Cherokee 
towns  killing  and  burning  all  in  the  way. 
Paying  no  attention  to  Colonel  Montgom 
ery's  demand  for  peace,  the  Indians  am 
bushed  his  army,  but  met  with  defeat.  At 
this  juncture,  however,  Colonel  Montgom 
ery  received  orders  to  proceed  to  the  north 
ern  colonies,  which  he  did,  leaving  a  force 
of  men  at  the  Congarees  for  the  protection 
of  the  "Back  Country." 

Fort  Loudon  on  the  Tennessee  River 
was  taken  by  the  Indians.  The  garrison, 
surrendering  on  promise  of  safe  passage, 
had  scarcely  left  the  fort  when  they  were 
set  upon  and  massacred.  Fort  Prince 
George  was  threatened.  The  Carolinians 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA.         79 

were  fortunately  reinforced  by  1,200  regu 
lars  under  Colonel  Grant,  who  led  the  com 
bined  forces  into  the  Cherokee  country. 
The  Indians  attacked  him  in  force  on  June 

10,  1761,  but  were  beaten  off  after  a  fierce 
battle.  A  number  of  towns  were  laid  waste ; 
corn  fields  and  stores  of  grain  were  de 
stroyed  ;  the  Indians  were  driven  into  the 
mountains,  where  many  of  them  died  from 
starvation.  For  thirty  days  the  army 
marched  unchecked  through  the  country 
of  the  Cherokees.  The  Indians  were  com 
pletely  humbled  and  begged  for  peace. 
The  chiefs  who  came  to  Fort  Prince  George 
were  given  a  safe  conduct  to  Charles  Town 
to  talk  with  the  governor.  When  they  met 
him  at  Ashley  Ferry,  all  smoked  for  a  long 
time  in  silence.  Then  old  Atakullakulla, 
who  had  tried  his  best  to  keep  his  people 
from  the  war  path,  spoke.  "I  am  come," 
said  he,  "to  see  what  can  be  done  for  my 
people.  They  are  in  great  distress.  As  to 
what  has  happened,  I  believe  it  has  been 
ordered  by  the  Great  Master.  He  is  the 
father  of  the  whites  and  of  the  Indians. 
As  we  live  in  one  land,  let  us  live  as  one 
people."  Governor  Bull  granted  the  old 


80         THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

man's  plea,  and  the  war  was  at  an  end. 

When  the  Revolutionary  War  began,  the 
British  through  their  agents  stirred  up  the 
Cherokees  to  attack  the  border  settlements. 
The  Indians,  who  had  agreed  to  an  uprising 
at  the  same  time  that  the  fleet  was  to  strike 
at  the  coast,  took  up  the  war  club  as  soon 
as  they  learned  that  the  British  ships  had 
arrived.  They  poured  down  upon  the  fron 
tiers  and  killed  without  regard  to  age  or 
sex.  Among  the  families  that  suffered  were 
the  Hamptons,  who  had  moved  to  the 
Tyger  River  from  Virginia.  The  settlers 
fled  in  every  direction. 

Major  Williamson  marched  against  the 
Indians  at  the  close  of  July,  1776,  but  had 
his  force  surprised  and  scattered.  Later 
he  advanced  into  the  Indian  country  and 
destroyed  several  villages  and  all  the  corn 
on  this  side  of  the  middle  settlements,  so 
that  the  Indians  had  to  live  on  berries,  roots 
and  wild  fruits.  Virginia  and  North  Caro 
lina  now  sent  troops  to  aid  Major  William 
son,  who  was  also  further  strengthened  by 
troops  from  home.  In  the  campaign  that 
followed  all  the  lower  towns,  the  middle 
settlements,  and  many  settlements  in  the 


THE  INDIANS  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA         81 

mountain  vallies  were  destroyed.  The 
Cherokees,  who  lost  about  two  thousand 
warriors,  were  forced  to  sue  for  peace. 
Part  of  their  lands,  the  present  counties  of 
Anderson,  Pickens,  Oconee  and  Greenville, 
was  ceded  to  South  Carolina. 

As  the  war  was  coming  to  a  close  the 
Cherokees  again  became  troublesome;  but 
a  campaign  by  General  Pickens  reduced 
them  to  a  state  of  peace. 

The  Catawbas  were  the  only  Indians  left 
within  the  borders  of  South  Carolina.  Their 
descendants  still  live  near  Rock  Hill. 


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